The Singles Bar: Muse “Madness”

Muse have just released their official first single (no, “Survival” as the Olympic theme song and the preorder bonus “The 2nd Law: Unsustainable” don’t count as first singles) and it has already received feedback from every possible angle.

From the lovers, to the haters, to the “I miss old Muse,” to the new fans taking it all in, the track has had so many varied responses.

Personally, I like it. But then again, I’m a diehard Muser and I’m open to their whole ‘recreating their sound’ thing. Yes, I miss the insane guitar riffs, not being able to understand Matt Bellamy’s falsetto wailing, and powerful bass lines, but I know that this is only one track off of the album. I still have high expectations. (Even if “Unsustainable” is part guitar dubstep, and “Survival” is cheesy, they both have parts of them that are epic)

Keeping with the recreating of their sound theme, if you listen to this song without knowing it was Muse, you might not actually know it was Muse. I guess I find that refreshing, because as much as I do love “Hysteria” and “Supermassive Black Hole” and the other singles that have topped the charts, hearing that same sound all the time would get droning.

And also, look at their earlier albums. There are other examples of slower songs mixed in with heavy rock anthems, it’s just what Muse does. Bellamy even told Rolling Stone that the band is “defined by the fact that we can’t be defined by anybody.”

Focusing on the actual song now, “Madness” sounds like it takes influence from U2 and George Michael, with Bellamy’s voice crooning and caressing the idea of true love over synth pop beats. Yes, Muse does synth pop and uses drum machines with their new sound. But, you know, I don’t hate it.

I especially like the guitar part in the bridge where Bellamy proves his true musicianship with his traditional fast fingerpicking. The swirling guitar almost even sounds a bit Queen-ish, which we know they’ve been influenced by for a while now.

While it’s not exactly my favorite, I don’t hate it, I even find it catchy, and I’m certainly not going to judge a whole album based on it. After all, we’ve gotten three songs off of The 2nd Law and each one is different. Plus, Chris Wolstenholme wrote and sings two songs, so I’m really excited for that.

3 comments

Angela says:

Aug 24, 2012

I cannot stop playing the crap out of this song. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve listened to it this past week. Being a U2 fan as well, I love that there’s a U2 influence on this song, and the George Michael comparisons are particularly intriguing to me. Of all the people for Muse to be compared to/influenced by… I also immediately thought of the band’s song “Undisclosed Desires” as well when I first heard this, which is also not a bad thing in my eyes.

Yeah, I don’t get the complaints about “old Muse”, either-as far back as Absolution, at least, with the song “Endlessly”, the band has been experimenting with synthy/dancey pop types of songs. If a new song from a band isn’t to someone’s liking, that’s fine, everyone’s got their tastes, but the moment I start hearing people get into a debate about the “old” version of a band versus the “new” version and all that, I can’t help but roll my eyes. It’s still the same band, people. They’re just trying new things. Which is good, because as you note, it could get boring otherwise.

Meh. Anywho, as for the other songs, “Survival” has definitely grown on me quite a bit as well, and “Unsustainable” is weird as hell (not unusual for Muse in that regard), but looking at it now in the context of how it might fit in on the album, I’m cool with it. Given how vastly different these three songs we’ve heard thus far are, and based off what I’ve read about how their new album will sound, let’s just say I’m INCREDIBLY curious, and looking very forward to October (it’s coming out the week of my birthday! What a nice present :D. Hehe).

*Goes off to listen to song again*

Cassandra says:

Aug 26, 2012

Weirdly enough, I can hear Undisclosed Desires too. I guess with that on the last album, we should have expected something like Madness on the new album.

I so agree with you with the “old/new” argument, and how it most definitely is just the same band evolving, not completely changing everything, or adding/removing members. Maybe a better way to say it is old sound and new sound. But even still, with Muse, they maintain some of their previous elements while exploring new ones, so it’s not like they’re a completely different band.

I think I like Unsustainable more than Survival just because the latter has some cheesy lyrics that I can’t help saying “really Matt?” to. But I do see how it’ll fit, especially in the tracklist order. I’m *very* excited. I’m not a “Muse can do no wrong” person, I mean face it, Guiding Light.. Neutron Star Collision.. changing I Belong To You for Twilight.. I’m just in love with most aspects of what they produce as musicians and I adore them as people (that sounds creepy, I’ve never met them..)

And yes, that is a great birthday present! If this mimics the “Resistance Era” they might be playing Boston around the time of my birthday!

Angela says:

Aug 27, 2012

Hey!

Yeah, probably so. I remember an interview with these guys once where it was discussed that each album has a song that tends to stick out from the rest and gives a hint as to where they might go with their next work-if that’s the case, then yeah, “Undisclosed Desires” definitely fits that bill. I’ll have to look that interview up.

Glad we’re in agreement on that. “Old sound” versus “new sound” comes off much better, I agree. As long as I can still hear the band in there in some form, as long as what they try comes off as sincere as anything else they’ve done (in that I get the sense that they’re experimenting with some new sound pr whatever because they genuinely want to), I’m cool with it. I’d rather any band I like try something new and possibly fail at it than not try anything new at all. Besides, as noted in my last comment, I’m a U2 fan as well, and lord knows that band has drastically changed their sound a lot, so if I could handle and love many of those changes, well…:p.

Agreed that the lyrics to “Survival” aren’t the strongest, but eh, then again, I remember talking with some other fans online once and someone pointed out that they don’t think many people listen to these guys for their lyrics to begin with (I like their lyrics, but I think we’re in a minority on that, you and I). And you’re right, no band is perfect (though I actually personally do like “Guiding Light”-yeah, it’s cheesy and VERY ’80s sounding, but eh, I tend to like ’80s style cheese :D). But like you said, what they do is fascinating and wonderful, they’re clearly talented, and I too like them as people. They seem like generally nice, cool guys, and I just love how weird and in his own little world Matt tends to be.

Ooh, yeah, there’s an idea! Hope that happens for you, that’d be awesome.